JARNAIL SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been filed with the following prayers :-

(2.) The record of the case shows that the petitioners were employees of the Punjab Roadways and were holding the posts of Conductors, Drivers, Mechanics, Inspectors and Clerks etc. On the basis of a policy decision taken by the Government in the year 1979-80 to transfer various bus routes to the Municipal Corporations of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, the buses of the Punjab Roadways were handed over to the Municipal Corporations along with the employees. It is in this manner that the petitioners were transferred to the service of the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar. The petitioners say that despite their transfer to service of the Municipal Corporation, they continued to retain their lien in the services of the Punjab Roadways and have a right to be repatriated to their department because they do not want to continue in the service of the Municipal Corporation.

(3.) During the pendency of the writ petition, the Government has reversed its policy and re-transferred the bus routes to the Punjab Roadways. In an earlier litigation which went upto the Supreme Court, their Lordships directed re-absorption of 73 erstwhile employees of the Punjab Roadways. While deciding the Civil Appeal No. 1219 of 1984 (State of Punjab and others v. Avtar Singh and others) on 3.1.1989, their Lordships directed that on retransfer to the Punjab Roadways, the employee concerned shall be assigned seniority which they originally held before their transfer to the Corporation.